Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue [Hardcover]

Rory Clements (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2009

England is close to war. Within days the axe could fall on the neck of Mary Queen of Scots, and Spain is already gathering a battle fleet to avenge her. Tensions in Elizabeth I’s government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham. When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate England’s ‘sea dragon’, Francis Drake, Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. With Drake on land fitting out his ships, he is frighteningly vulnerable. If he dies, England will be open to invasion. In a London rife with rumour, Shakespeare must decide which leads to follow, which to ignore. When a high-born young woman is found mutilated and murdered at an illicit printing house, it is political gunpowder – and he has no option but to investigate. But why is Shakespeare shadowed at every turn by the brutal Richard Topcliffe, the blood-drenched priest-hunter who claims intimacy with Queen Elizabeth herself? What is Topcliffe’s interest in a housemaid, whose baby has been stolen? And where do two fugitive Jesuit priests fit into the puzzle, one happy to die for God, the other to kill for Him?

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
In this ingenious debut, Rory Clements introduces John Shakespeare, Elizabethan England’s most remarkable investigator, and delivers a tale of murder and conspiracy that succeeds brilliantly as both historical fiction and a crime thriller.

In a burnt-out house, one of Queen Elizabeth’s aristocratic cousins is found murdered, her young flesh marked with profane symbols. At the same time, a plot to assassinate Sir Francis Drake, England’s most famous sea warrior, is discovered—a plot which, if successful, could leave the country utterly defenseless against a Spanish invasion. It’s 1587, the Queen’s reign is in jeopardy, and one man is charged with the desperate task of solving both cases: John Shakespeare. With the Spanish Armada poised to strike, Mary Queen of Scots awaiting execution, and the pikes above London Bridge decorated with the grim evidence of treachery, the country is in peril of being overwhelmed by fear and chaos. Following a trail of illicit passions and family secrets, Shakespeare travels through an underworld of spies, sorcerers, whores, and theater people, among whom is his own younger brother, the struggling playwright, Will. Shadowed by his rival, the Queen’s chief torturer, who employs his own methods of terror, Shakespeare begins to piece together a complex and breathtaking conspiracy whose implications are almost too horrific to contemplate. For a zealous and cunning killer is stalking England’s streets. And as Shakespeare threatens to reveal a madman’s shocking identity, he and the beautiful woman he desires come ever closer to becoming the next martyrs to a passion for murder and conspiracy whose terrifying consequences might still be felt today...

A Q&A with Rory Clements

Question: Martyr is your first book. What did you do before you became a novelist?

Rory Clements: Before coming to Norfolk, in the east of England, I was a national newspaper journalist in London. Journalism is the worst and best of careers. The worst because you are always the bystander, watching other people saving lives, making world-changing decisions, winning tournaments; the best because I love the company of journalists.

Q: How did you adjust from living a fast-paced life in London, to moving to a village in the country?

RC: I loved the city, but felt it was time for a change. At first, I feared I would miss the pace and noise, but I couldn't be happier. Norfolk is simply magical—full of wide open spaces and birdsong. My wife and I live in an old farmhouse, parts of which are believed to date from 1675. It has a mellow redbrick frontage which was probably added in about 1800. The good thing about old farmhouses is that the ceilings are low, which means it is easy to keep snug and warm in winter.

We don’t have pets, but then we don’t really need them because we have so many wild animals in the garden—moles, frogs (they seem to live in the utility room), shrews, ducks (sometimes to be found in the kitchen), many different songbirds, even the occasional fallow deer.

Apart from the lack of mountains, Norfolk is perfect. I haven’t seen a traffic warden since I have been here, though I am sure there must be one or two skulking somewhere.

Q: You are fascinated by the Elizabethan world. What do you make of Queen Elizabeth?

RC: I doubt she was a nice person. In fact, the evidence seems to suggest she could be a vicious old crone at times. But she did keep the theatres open in defiance of the killjoy Puritans. Without her, there would have been no William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. Unfortunately the Puritans are still with us, doing their best to make life miserable and risk-free for everyone else.

Q: Do you have any habits that have become part of your daily writing process?

RC: Well, because I often work late at night, I start the day very slowly. I make my own version of mocha using strong coffee, cocoa, milk and sugar, then do a sudoku puzzle to fire up the brain.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

RC: My advice to would-be novelists is this: have a great story (no amount of brilliant, poetic writing will disguise a weak tale) and try to make every sentence count. If the readers are bored, it's the author's fault, not theirs.

Additionally, I would advise writers and journalists to become Samaritans. This is a UK organization of volunteers who help distressed and suicidal people simply by listening, either on the phone or in person. The volunteers bring comfort to an enormous number of people—but also do wonders for themselves, by gaining insight into the lives of others and the human condition generally. In recent years, Samaritans have also offered an email service, which is used by people all around the world, especially north America.

(Photo © Naomi Clements)

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. William Shakespeare's older brother, John, plays sleuth in Clements's excellent debut, billed as an Elizabethan thriller. While Queen Elizabeth hesitates to sign the death warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots, her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, fears the Spanish have sent an assassin to England to kill the country's greatest naval hero, Sir Francis Drake. John, Walsingham's assistant secretary and chief intelligencer, suspects the conspiracy against Drake may be connected with a murder John's investigating—the stabbing death of Lady Blanche Howard, whose mutilated corpse was found in a burning London building. His inquiries put him at odds with Richard Topcliffe, a fanatical servant of the queen known for his taste for torture and anti-Catholic zeal, who threatens to expose John's father's secret Catholic sympathies. The characters, action and period detail are all solid, though some may wish the end notes had provided information on the historical John Shakespeare. (May)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385342829
• ISBN-13: 978-0385342827
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #649,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This most balmy time, July 27, 2009

By 

A. Hickman (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue (Hardcover)

At a time when scholars are warming to the idea that Shakespeare may himself have been a secret Catholic, it seems odd to introduce a hero who not only is alleged to be that poet's brother but who also makes a living hunting down Papists. Shakespeare was, of course, his mother's eldest son. We may come to find that John Shakespeare was the illegitimate son of John Senior, but I'll leave that fiction to Rory Clements to concoct. The John Shakespeare of "Martyr" is a naif. He is a senior officer in the employ of Walsingham (it will be interesting to find out, should the series continue, how that came about), but he is easily gulled and outmanoeuvred, allowing himself to be robbed on the one hand and raped by whores on the other, not to mention being kidnapped and beaten and repeatedly humiliated by his enemy and fellow intelligencer, the historical Richard Topcliffe. He hasn't a fraction of the wit of his younger "brother," Will, who shines in a brief scene. I'll admit, I was looking for a mystery novel when I stumbled across "Martyr"; it is more derring-do than whodunnit. That being said, it is a lively invocation of the period, and I love a good period novel. Plus there are some inspired characters and characterizations, including a pirate-sailor named Boltfoot, a mysterious madam, and none other that Sir Francis Drake himself, the scourge of the Spanish Armada. I have a feeling that many of these characters will be appearing in subsequent novels, and I look forward to reading about them. However, for all his "youth," John Shakespeare needs to become more of a player. He is honorable and likeable, but he is not entirely believable as a forerunner of James Bond. Intelligencers, to use Clements' term, should be made of sterner stuff.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meet Shakespeare's older brother -- the sleuth!, August 10, 2009

By 

S. McGee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue (Hardcover)

History gives us few certainties about William Shakespeare -- scholars have even been bickering for centuries about who actually wrote all those plays -- leaving a creative writer with a solid knowledge of Elizabethan England free to invent an older brother for the famous playwright and poet. John Shakespeare is toiling in the employ of Queen Elizabeth's famous spymaster, Walsingham, trying to keep England safe from conspiracies against the queen and her realm from the likes of Mary Queen of Scots and the King of Spain. It's a weighty task, and it doesn't help that Shakespeare also feels the need to protect the country from the far more fanatic Topcliffe, who will torture and even kill at random in the pursuit of the same goals.

To me, the hallmark of a well-told tale is when I am convinced to completely ignore plot twists that seem implausible or facts that are invented (Shakespeare was probably the eldest surviving son in his family, for instance) and Rory Clements moves this story along at a cracking pace, starting with the discovery of the dead and mutilated body of the queen's cousin, Lady Blanche Howard. Trying to solve this crime and protect Sir Francis Drake, the seaman who is the terror of the Spaniards, from assassination, brings John Shakespeare into conflict with not only a Jesuit assassin but also Topcliffe, his nemesis (who comes across as a kind of 16th century predecessor of an Al Qaeda terrorist or torturer in some Middle Eastern prison, prepared to do anything it takes; he literally demolishes the house of a noblewoman in quest of a Jesuit priest he believes she is hiding.) It's a swashbuckling tale, involving seafaring, horseback pursuits along country roads, whores and brothels, kidnappings, illicit printing presses printing scandalous broadsheets about the misdeeds of Queen Elizabeth with Robert Dudley, etc. To Clements' great credit, he keeps the action moving so rapidly, and his characters are so lively and interesting, that I found myself simply shrugging off some of the more implausible plot twists (does Shakespeare the sleuth not have the common sense to figure out when it might be smart to take someone with him in pursuit of a possible witch with knowledge of murders??) There's lots of gritty detail about whorehouse life, pisspots and other such stuff and less emphasis on romance or even offering the reader a soft veil through which to peer at the 16th century; some readers will be pleased at the gritty approach while others, more accustomed to historical fiction or romance reads, might find it jarring.

Ultimately, it was Clements' ability to craft great characters that grabbed me and didn't let me go. His John Shakespeare is a man with scruples in an era where having them places him squarely in the midst of a battle royal between those on all sides who feel such scruples are an impediment to more lofty goals -- protecting their religion, pursuing their cause, etc. He conjures up a world that we have left behind, one where the precise form of words used in a religious service or the willingness or not to acknowledge the Pope's authority set one automatically at variance to the country's rulers and placed one in peril. What I appreciated most is that the handful of real villains (who appear on both sides of the mystery) were those who lacked any ability to perceive the world and the people around them in shades of gray; they were manipulators, men and women of violence. Perhaps these Elizabethans weren't always as self-reflective as Clements portrays them, but I got the sense that they would still recognize themselves in the portraits that he has crafted.

Recommended to anyone who liked the Shardlake series of mysteries by C.J. Sansom (Dissolution) and who's looking for more in the same gritty style. John Shakespeare doesn't measure up to Matthew Shardlake as a sleuth, nor are the mysteries he solves as carefully crafted and presented, but Clements is a worthy addition to the list of historical mystery writers. One note: little brother William doesn't play a major role in this drama, but does come in at the end to provide some crucial help. I look forward to seeing how Clements introduces the playwright into his future mysteries -- which I'll be keeping an eye open for and buying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Shakespeare by any other name......, October 21, 2010

By 

B. Morse (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martyr: A Novel of Tudor Intrigue (Hardcover)

Martyr, the debut novel by historical mystery writer Rory Clements, sets out to do many things....to tell a good tale of intrigue and murder...to set his tale in Elizabethan times to good effect, and to introduce us to the man trying to undo the mystery....the elder sibling of William Shakespeare....his 'sleuthing' brother John.

The literary world is full of novelists trying to accurately portray a time they were never witness to.....and many times history is not what actually 'happened'....but what is written down...and remembered through the ages. Little biographical information about Will Shakespeare survives to this day, including that of his family.

In all respects, Rory Clements succeeds in his endeavors. John Shakespeare sets out to untangle the mystery before him and preserve the life of Sir Francis Drake, who many would like to see dead. Shakespeare finds danger and intrigue a-plenty, as he travels from bar room to brothel in his attempts to unmask the murderer of a young woman (amongst others) and piece together how this particular bloody trail leads to the person who would have Sir Francis dead.

A wonderful read...easily digested, rich in period detail, and entertaining throughout. Highly recommended to those who like a well-written period mystery.